in the time to come.

Various manufactories add to the wealth of the inhabitants, whose
luxurious homes and bright gardens are undoubted indications of
prosperity and domestic comfort. The placid river runs through the
town, which, with the heavy barges lying at the wharves, the
draw-bridges which span its shores, and the smaller crafts, which
afford amusement to the youthful fraternity, contribute to the
general picturesqueness of the scene.

The citizens, descended from good old revolutionary sires, possess
the sturdy ambitions, the indomitable will and the undoubted honor of
their ancestors, and, as is the case with all progressive American
towns, South Norwalk boasts of its daily journal, which furnishes the
latest intelligence of current events, proffers its opinions upon the
important questions of the day, and, like the _Sentinel_ of old,
stands immovable and unimpeachable between the people and any
attempted encroachment upon their rights.

On a beautiful, sunny day in August, 1878, there descended from the
train that came puffing up to the commodious station at South
Norwalk, an old man, apparently a German, accompanied by a much
younger one, evidently of the same nationality. The old gentleman was
not prepossessing in appearance, and seemed to be avoided by his
well-dressed fellow-passengers. He was a tall, smooth-faced man about
sixty years of age, but his broad shoulders and erect carriage gave
evidence of an amount of physical power and strength scarcely in
accord with his years. Nor was his appearance calculated to impress
the observer with favor. He wore a wretched-looking coat, and upon
his head a dingy, faded hat of foreign manufacture. His shoes showed
frequent patches, and looked very much as though their owner had
performed the duties of an amateur cobbler.

It was not a matter of wonder, therefore, that the round-faced Squire
shrugged his burly shoulders as the new-comer entered his office, or
that he was about to bestow upon the forlorn-looking old man some
trifling token of charity.

The old gentleman, however, was not an applicant for alms. He did not
deliver any stereotyped plea for assistance, nor did he recite a tale
of sorrow and suffering calculated to melt the obdurate heart of the
average listener to sympathy, and so with a wave of his hand he
declined the proffered coin, and stated the nature of his business.

The Squire soon discovered his error, for instead of asking for
charity